[antiwar-van] Statement of MAWO on Saddam Hussein’s Execution

[shannon]

Statement of Mobilization Against War & Occupation on
Saddam Hussein’s Execution:
An Execution Carried Out by 150,000 Occupation Forces 

Dec 30th, 2006 
Vancouver, BC
www.mawovancouver.org 

On December 30th, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by
hanging in an Iraq occupied by 150,000 US troops. This
death sentence was handed down on November 5th, after
an illegitimate and flawed trial. The trial was a
farce and a spectacle. Three judges were dismissed in
this trial for being too mindful of the rights of
Saddam. Three of the defense lawyers were
assassinated. The final leg of the trial left the
defendant with no lawyer at all (except for a court
appointed lawyer which he refused). The trial itself
was focused on the execution of a group of relatively
isolated assassination-conspirators which Saddam
ordered. It drew all attention away from the much more
revealing massacres carried out with US and UK
knowledge and support – such as the war imposed on
Iran in 1980 that resulted in more than one million
deaths, the mass murders of Iraqi Kurds in 1982, the
carpet bombing of army deserters in 1983, the 1988
massacre of Kurds in Halabja, or the massacre of Kurds
and Shi’ia Iraqis in 1991, all with US-supplied
planes, helicopters and bombs. Now, as of the early
hours of December 30th, justice for these US/UK-backed
crimes will follow Saddam Hussein to the grave. 

This was not a trial carried out by the efforts of
Iraqi people. As such, this was not a punishment
carried out by the Iraqi people. Not only has the
US-led occupation stolen the sovereignty of Iraq, it
has also denied the Iraqi people their right to
realize justice for the crimes of Saddam Hussein. Less
than 24 hours after the execution, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and many other
human rights and civil rights organizations condemned
this flawed and corrupt trial. 

The US has tried to justify this execution as being
the removal of the root of evil in Iraq, and a step to
the liberation of Iraqi people. In reality the
execution is the removal of a former US-puppet who
carried out massacres and atrocities with the
intelligence, funding, and direct support of various
US administrations. The execution of Saddam by the US
was the punishment for a disobedient servant, carried
out by his master. 

The root of evil – of destruction, suffering,
humiliation, poverty, occupation and death – in Iraq
is not in the hands of one man. The US/UK occupation
of Iraq has brought the deaths of more than 655,000
Iraqis. It has brought the death of nearly 3300
occupation soldiers, 3000 of those US. It has brought
the greatest injustices to the Iraqi people. For three
years now, the US has had Saddam (“the root of all
evil”) in jail, and still life has worsened for
Iraqis. On Dec 29th, a poll was released by Iraq
Centre for Research and Strategic Studies stating that
90% of Iraqis surveyed said that life was better under
Saddam than it is today under US/UK occupation. By
what logic can the US claim that life will improve for
Iraqis all because now Saddam has made the journey
from a jail cell to a grave?! 

The only way that Iraqis can realize justice against
the crimes of Saddam Hussein, would be through a
sovereign trial, in a sovereign court, in a sovereign
country. Then Iraqi people would have the just
opportunity to expose his record of crimes. And only
then could the Iraqi people expose the depths of US
collaboration in these crimes. Furthermore, true
justice can only be realized if the Iraqi people could
demand the trial and sentencing of not only one little
Saddam, but every US leader who has Iraqi blood on
their hands. The Iraqi people could not only sentence
the Iraqi President, but also President George W. Bush
and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who themselves stand on
the bones of more than 655,000 Iraqis - and counting. 

Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) condemns
the execution of Saddam Hussein as a corrupt maneuver
by the imperialist occupation to lay all of the crimes
into Saddam’s hands alone. We condemn the brutal,
illegitimate and illegal occupation-run court that
handed down this sentence. We stand in solidarity with
Iraqi people. We stand in solidarity with their demand
for self-determination and their right to justice -
not only against Saddam, but against the decades of US
and UK-backed atrocities against them. Ultimately, no
justice will ever be realized in Iraq until the end to
the US/UK war and occupation. US/UK OUT OF IRAQ!
SELF-DETERMINATION FOR IRAQ NOW! 


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